For a company that develops a variety of products and manufactures and sells such developed products, it is an important task to let customers know such products are for sale.
In general, advertisement of these products is carried out by utilizing mass media such as various kinds of newspapers, journals, or TV.
Hence, for example, advertisement of a measuring instrument for measuring properties of electronic communication equipment or electronic parts is typically carried out by inserting advertisements in their associated journals.
In this case, in a complicated measuring instrument in which measurement items are diversified, if only measurement items or specifications are described in the advertisement fields of their associated journals, an amount of information is insufficient for a general user who attempts to purchase or install such a measuring instrument.
To such a user having interest in such a measuring instrument (person who wants to purchase the measuring instrument), a manufacturer of this measuring instrument creates a demonstration video tape having recorded therein demonstration of handling or operation of the measuring instrument, and delivers or gives it to the person who wants.
The user of this measuring instrument (person who wants to purchase the instrument) mounts the demonstration videotape on one's own video player, and checks the demonstration of handling or operation on a TV screen.
In addition, a manufacturer of this measuring instrument writes data for demonstration of handling or operation of this measuring instrument into a demonstration CD-ROM, and delivers or gives such a CD-ROM to a person who wants to purchase the measuring instrument.
The person who wants to purchase the measuring instrument mounts such a demonstration CD-ROM on one's own PC terminal, and checks the data for demonstration of handling or operation on the PC terminal display screen.
Further, in recent years, there has been implemented a system for distributing to a person who wants, via a communication network, demonstration data for demonstration of handling or operation of a measuring instrument stored in the CD-ROM.
In this case, the user (person who wants to purchase the instrument) having received distribution of the demonstration data via a communication network, checks information on the handling or operation of the measuring instrument, which was received by one's own PC terminal, on the display screen.
However, the following problems to be solved have remained unsolved in each of the above described techniques.
That is, for example, in a measuring instrument for a variety of modulation signals or in a measuring instrument that carries out waveform analysis or frequency analysis, it is required that a tremendous number of measurement items or measurement conditions are set.
It is very difficult to generate demonstration data for demonstration of handling or operation which fully covers such a tremendous number of measurement items or measurement conditions, and it is not realistic to generate such demonstration data.
Even if such demonstration data has successfully been generated, an amount of the data becomes tremendously large, thus requiring a considerable amount of time for a user to search for a portion of one's own interest.
Further, where the demonstration data is distributed to a person who wants to purchase it via a communication network, the communication time and communication cost significantly increase.
Furthermore, the demonstration data for handling or operation of the measuring instrument, the data being delivered or distributed via a communication network to the above described person, only concerns demonstration under typical measurement items or measuring conditions which are statistically provided.
Thus, a user (person who wants to purchase the instrument) cannot check demonstration data for dynamic and interactive demonstration, the data including measurement items, measuring conditions or the like of one's own interest.
Therefore, the user (person who wants to purchase the instrument) has only one way to operate an actual measuring instrument by themselves at a shop or showroom of the measuring instrument manufacturer or ask a person in charge to operation the instrument.
On the other hand, in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,977, “Data Acquisition from Remote Instrument via Internet”, there is disclosed a technique concerning a system for providing access to measurement of a vector modulation analysis (VMA) instrument or the like from an arbitrary place in the world so as to achieve remote control, data acquisition of measurement results, screen capture, and status, remote diagnostics and many other uses.
Hence, in a system disclosed in this U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,977, data acquisition can be only achieved of typical measurements items or measuring conditions which are statistically provided, and dynamic and interactive data acquisition including measurement items or measuring conditions of the user's interest cannot be achieved.
In addition, in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,977, there is neither disclosure nor suggestion of a technique for constructing an interactive demonstration system for a measuring instrument using a network in order for a user (person who wants to purchase the instrument) to know the details on various measuring instruments which are newly developed and to acquire dynamic and interactive demonstration information including measurement items, measuring conditions of the user's interest or the like.